While Kurds Count Bodies, Iraqi Leaders Try to Bridge Their Divide

By DAMIEN CAVE; Reporting was contributed by Ali Fahim, Ali Adeeb and Karim Hilmi from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Diwaniya, Mosul and Ramadi.

Published: August 17, 2007

Emergency workers continued Thursday to pull bodies from the rubble of a quadruple truck bombing in two villages near the Syrian border as Iraq's prime minister, a Shiite, and its president, a Kurd, announced a new alliance of moderates in Parliament.

Security officials near Qahtaniya, where the explosions killed at least 250 people Tuesday night, said plans were being made for the Iraqi government to pay 2 million Iraqi dinars, about $1,600, to the family of each person killed in the blasts.

Kurdish troops arrived on Thursday to help secure the area, which is dominated by the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi sect. The attack was the deadliest since the American-led invasion in 2003.

The death toll remained uncertain. Dakhil Qassim, the mayor of the nearby town of Sinjar, told reporters that as many as 500 people could be dead. Brig. Gen. Khorsheed Saleem al-Dosaki, commander of the Iraqi Army division in the area, said 250 was a more reasonable estimate.

In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani said their agreement could revive government activity after weeks of a deadlocked dispute over a boycott by the leading Sunni bloc, the Iraqi Consensus Front.

The move appeared aimed at displaying an example of political agreement across sectarian and ethnic lines.

But the impact of the deal could be limited. If the entire Shiite bloc of 130 seats goes along with the agreement, the new Shiite-Kurdish alliance would control 181 of Parliament's 275 seats, enough to pass legislation. It remains unclear, however, whether the Fadhila Party and the party loyal to Moktada al-Sadr -- the Shiite parties that have been some of Mr. Maliki's most vocal critics -- would sign on when laws came up for a vote.

Mr. Sadr's group has repeatedly boycotted Mr. Maliki's government, and Fadhila pulled out of the Shiite bloc in March.

A senior American official in Baghdad, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject, said that any alliance leaving out Sunnis would also lack the credibility needed for real reconciliation among the country's three main factions, Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

''The core issues in Iraq, those things which the political leaders need to grapple with and are grappling, with have to be solved by all three communities,'' he said. ''So in that sense it's hard to assess what this particular move means today.''

Mr. Talabani said the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest of three Sunni parties within the Iraqi Consensus Front, was also invited to join the alliance, but declined.

''They are blessing this agreement,'' Mr. Talabani said, trying to sound optimistic, ''and hoping we can find a way to solve the political problems, and then they will be with us.''

Some Sunni leaders, however, responded with continued defiance. Omar Abd al-Satar, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, dismissed Thursday's agreement as an effort to formalize the status quo. He said it would not be enough to bring back the Iraqi Consensus Front, the largest Sunni group in Parliament, which has pulled its six ministers from the cabinet.

''This agreement remains loyal to the existing reality and will not save the country from its crisis,'' he said.

For now, the Sunnis seem focused on building unity among their own. Adnan al-Dulaimi, the leader of the Iraqi Consensus Front, spent the day in Anbar Province meeting with Sunni tribal leaders who had recently started working with the Americans to fight Sunni extremists. The tribal groups, known as the Anbar Salvation Council, have emerged as a potential rival to Mr. Dulaimi's party, and the meeting appeared to be an effort to smooth over their differences and create a unified Sunni front.

Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, a council founder, said after the meeting that the tribes had agreed not to seek the Consensus Front's seats in Mr. Maliki's cabinet, but he also called on the Sunni leaders in Baghdad to change course.

''Anbar is the main hub for you and we are proud to fight Al Qaeda, but we call you, the Consensus Front, to unify your stand,'' he said. ''You have to agree on a formula for the political work.''

Intrasectarian rivalries also festered on Thursday in the Shiite-dominated south, where militias loyal to Mr. Sadr's organization and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council -- along with fighters from the Fadhila Party -- have been battling for control.

Fadhila supporters on Thursday buried the chief of their office in Diwaniya, the capital of Qadisiya Province. He was shot and killed Wednesday by unidentified gunmen.

Also on Thursday, the American military announced the deaths of two American soldiers killed during combat north of Baghdad on Wednesday. Six soldiers were wounded in the attack, according to a military statement. It announced that one soldier died of non-battle-related causes.